Tips & Tricks: RSS Feeds

What is RSS?

Simply put, RSS is a technology that brings your favorite news updates and blog articles directly to you (to your computer) instead of you having to go searching regularly to check every favorite blog site or news site to see if there is something new. Links to new content are collected and stored by the RSS feed reader and kept for you to view at your leisure. A person accesses this technology by signing up for an RSS feed.

Blogs and RSS

One of the great features of blogs and other web publications is the ability to keep track of new articles as they are posted. Through RSS feeds a person is able to keep up with favorite websites without having to search on a regular basis to see if there is something new. The new articles are brought right to one’s web browser. The Northwest website is fully RSS enabled so that any new articles are available to be collected by an RSS feed reader.

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Comments and RSS

Many blogs have the ability to entertain comments and responses to posted articles. These comments can also be linked to via RSS feed. That way a person can keep track of when new comments are added to a favorite article or news item. The Northwest website has that capacity.

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Sign up for RSS

It is fairly easy to sign up for RSS feeds. In Firefox there will be a symbol at the far right of the web address bar indicating that a website has RSS available. Notice the orange “fan-like” icon in the address bar of the first image on this page. When the mouse p0inter hovers over it a yellow tip box appears that says something like “Subscribe to this page…” (other browsers work similarly). Follow the instructions and a new link will be created on your “Bookmarks Toolbar”. Firefox comes with one already installed – “Latest Headlines” which is an RSS feed to BBC’s news website.

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Using RSS

RSS is simple to use. Once the feed has been set up simply open the list and see if there are any new articles.

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If you would like to view a description on the Mozilla (Firefox) website that does a good job of simplifying the explanation – go here

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?...But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:25, 33)